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WILLIAM H. RAU 

PHILADELPHIA 

1690 



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DESCRIPTIVE READING 



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ILLUSTRATED BY TWELVE LANTERN 


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WILLIAM H. RAU 

PHILADELPHIA 
1890 



C ot)yj i^ht, 1890, by Williarn H. Rau. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



1. Jackson Square. 

2. Lee Monument. 

3. The Mint. 

4. National Cemetery, Chalmette. 

5. Canal Street. 

6. Street Cobbler. 

7. The University, Common Street. 

8. St. Philip's Street. 

9. St. Louis Cemetery. 

10. Old City Hall. 

11. Live Oak Tree?^. 

12. On the Levee, Loading- Steamers. 



NEW ORLEANS. 



The city of New Orleans is so fruitful a theme, so 
full of interest, that it will excite enthusiasm, and 
warm up the fancies of the veriest sleeper. Poetry 
and plain matter of fact appear to have' harmonized 
for once and blended into an attractive union. This 
lovely *' City of Roses " is dropped down somewhere 
in the marshes of the Mississippi and the bayous and 
lakes. It is below the one and tangled up among 
the others or it might some day float out to the Gulf 
and disappear. Although all on one level it is a 
town of contrasts. In no other city of the United 
States or of Mexico is the old and romantic preserved 
in such integrity and brought into such sharp con- 
trast to the modern. In a morning's promenade, 
which shall not extend over a hundred acres, one 
may encounter the civilization of Paris, of Madrid, 
of Messina ; may stumble upon the semi-barbaric life 
of the negro and the native Indian ; may see the over- 
worked American in his business establishment and 
in his elegant home ; and may find, strangest of all. 
that each and every foreign type moves in a special 
current of its own, mingling little with the American, 
which is dominant ; in it, yet not of it— as the Gulf 
Stream in the ocean. Yonder is the archbishop's 
palace. Stand on one side of it and you seem in a 
foreign land ; stand upon the other and you catch a 
glimpse of the rush and hurry of American traffic of 

(893) 



894 NEW ORLEANS. 

to-day along the levee. The comparative isolation 
of the city has secured the development of provincial 
traits and manners, has preserved the individuality of 
the many races that give it color, morals and charac- 
ter. To the Northern stranger the aspect and man- 
ner of the city are foreign, but if he remains long 
enough he is sure to yield to its fascinations, and be- 
come a partisan of it. 

1. Jackson Square. — Here in the heart of the 
French Quarter is the most picturesquely classic spot 
in the Mississippi Valley ; it is the ancient Place d' 
Armes, now Jackson Square, beautiful with semi- 
tropical plants and quaint gardening. On this spot 
Bienville gave his colony a name ; here the citizens 
met to revolt against their cession to Spain; and here 
they welcomed victorious Jackson after the victory of 
Chalmette. Here were the victorious troops of the 
iron, angular, unbending General drawn up in order 
of review. Under a triumphal arch backed by 
glittering avenues of bayonets stretching to the river, 
the hero passed, and with laurel-crowned head bowed 
low to receive the apostolic benediction of the 
venerable abbe at the Cathedral door. One never 
tires of wandering in the neighborhood of the old 
Cathedral, which is flanked by the Pont alba buildings, 
and supported on either side by the ancient Spanish 
court-house. When the court is in session, iron 
cables are stretched across the street to prevent the 
passage of wagons, and justice is administered in 
silence only broken by the trill of birds in the Place 
d' Armes and in the old flower garden in the rear of 
the Cathedral, and by the muffled sound of footsteps 
in the flagged passages. 



NEW ORLEANS. 895 

From the tower of the Cathedral St. Louis the 
tremulous harmony of bells drifts lightly on the cool 
breeze, and hovers like a benediction over the antique 
buildings, the blossoms and hedges in the square, and 
the broad and swiftly-flowing river. The bells are 
calling all in the parish to offer prayers for the Cathe- 
dral's founder, the royal standardbearer of Spain, Don 
Andreas Almonaster y Roxas. Venerable and impos- 
ing is the Cathedral with its towers crowned with spires, 
and its arched door, with clustered Tuscan columns on 
each side ; and many a grand pageant has it seen. 

Under the pavement of the Cathedral is buried 
Pere Antoine, the beloved Spanish priest who, in his 
time, was one of the celebrities of New Orleans, and 
the very recollection of whom calls up memories of 
the Inquisition, of intrigue and mystery. His name 
is sacred in the Louisianian capital nevertheless, for 
he died in the odor of sanctity, mourned by the women 
and worshiped by the children. 

3. fjce Monument. — At the intersection of St. 
Charles Avenue and Delord Street, in the centre of 
what is known as Lee Circle, stands the statue of 
Gen. Robert E. Lee, the idol of the Southern Con- 
federacy. Born in Virginia, a member of the famous 
Lee family so conspicuous in the history of that 
state, his gallant ancestry might well imbue him with 
an enthusiasm for a military career. He was grad- 
uated from West Point in 1829,* ranking second in a 
class of forty-six, and was immediately commissioned 
as second lieutenant in the engineers. At the begin- 
ning of the Mexican War he was assigned to duty, 
his rank being that of captain. His abilities as an 



896 NEW ORLEANS. 

engineer and his gallant conduct as a soldier won the 
special admiration of Gen. Scott, who repeatedly 
singled him out for commendation. He was raised to 
the rank of lieutenant-colonel for his distinguished 
services in the storming of Chapultepec. In 1852 he 
was appointed to the command of West Point, which 
position he held until in 1855 he was assigned to 
duty on the Texan Frontier. 

On the 20th of April, 1861, three days after Virginia 
seceded, Lee resigned his commission, his letter of 
resignation containing these words : — 

"With all my devotion to the Union, and the 
feelings of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, 
I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my 
hand against my relatives, my children, my home." 

With his gallant career as commander-in chief of 
the Confederate army we are all familiar, and his 
ability as a leader and his character as a man, inspire 
the admiration of both friend and foe. 

The statue represents him, with folded arms, sur- 
veying the scene of battle. It was unveiled during 
the carnival of 1883, in the presence of an immense 
multitude. The statue surmounts a pillar, one hun- 
dred feet in height, which rises from the centre of a 
large mound. The pillar is hollow, and a spiral 
staircase gives access to a small room at the top, 
immediately beneath the coUossal bronze figure. 

3. The Mint. — At the corner of Esplanade and 
Old Lee Streets, on what was the site of Fort St. 
Charles, stands a compact brown building fronting on 
a wide street; greedy of ground it is, and has a 
square to itself, with green grass and shrubbery about 



NEW ORLEANS. 697 

it, which look strangely, but gratefully, amid all the 
dust and smoke about. This is the United States 
Branch mint, an imposing structure, built of brick, 
plastered to imitate granite. It consists of a central 
projecting building of the Ionic order, and two wings. 
Within those rigid walls are being put into unques- 
tioned shapes the gold and silver that wield such 
powerful influence in the world outside. 

There is still pointed out to the visitor the window, 
under the front portico of the main building, from 
which Wm. B. Mumford washungon the yth of June, 
1862. Mumford hauled down the stars and stripes 
which by Farragut's order had been raised over the 
Mint; he was tried, was convicted of treason, and by 
Gen. Butler's orders was hanged from a gallows 
placed immediately under the flag staff. He ad- 
dressed a vast crowd from the gallows, and urged in 
extenuation of his offense that it had been committed 
in a moment of intense excitement. 

The street is wide and the sun is hot ; the heroic 
mule struggles with the convenient car, which in 
other cities is drawn by two horses ; and he whirls 
the airy vehicle along the well-laid tracks, while the 
driver watches the passengers, who are required to 
drop their fare into a little box, glass-faced, fastened 
near the front platform. 

4. National Cemetery, Chalmette.— A pleasant 
drive of four miles along the bank of the Mississippi 
will bring us to a spot famous in American history 
as the locality where, in January, 1815, the American 
forces under command of Gen. Jackson obtained a 
glorious victory over the British invaders of Louisiana, 



898 NEW ORLEANS. 

and drove them from its soil with great and terrible 
slaughter. . The plain* is washed on one side by the 
''Father of Waters," and extends back about a mile 
to cypress swamps. How the lines of British swept 
back and forth that day, and many of the brave 
subjects of King George rushed into the very jaws of 
death. Assault after assault was met by a perfect 
sheet of fire from behind the cottonbales where "Old 
Hickory" had entrenched his forces. The British 
failed to realize the almost impregnable position 
occupied by the adversary. Seven hundred of them 
were killed and fourteen hundred wounded before 
they retreated from the field. The casualties on 
the American side did not number seventy-five 
altogether, A marble monument, seventy feet high 
occupies a suitable site overlooking the ground, and 
fittingly commemorates the victory. 

The south-west corner of the field is occupied by 
the National Cemetery. This beautiful resting-place 
of the dead was donated by the city in 1865. Of the 
twelve thousand graves within its limits, more than 
five thousand are marked ''Unknown," but all share 
alike the floral benediction on the 3otl\ of May. 
Twenty three states have contributed their quota to 
this silent city of the dead, and many brave boys 
from each of the thirteen original states now lie 
sleeping in this peaceful spot. The monument which 
speaks so eloquently of the arts of war, fittingly 
commemorates the illustrious dead ; it was erected by 
the Joseph A. Merves Post, of the Grand Army 
of the Republic. 



NEW ORLEANS. 

,5. Canal Street. — Canal Street is the great artery 
which cuts this cosmopolitan city in twain, and until 
recently was itself divided into two parts by the 
canal which gave it its name. The wide, fine avenue 
is bordered by shops and by many handsome resi- 
dences ; the banks, insurance offices and wholesale 
stores are elegant and modern. On one side of this 
great thoroughfore is a powerful American city, 
firmly established, fully abreast of the trade and 
industry of the times, and clutching eagerly for its 
share of the commerce of the world ; on the other is 
the quaint quiet French town, sleepy and sunny, and 
dreaming life away. 

It is a fine street, massively built, through which 
endless tides of human life ebb and flow all day ; 
stretching away out to the country, it is lined with 
modern hotels, club houses, and huge dwellings. On 
the broad raised level in the middle of the street meet 
all the lines of horse cars which traverse the city. 
One taking a car in any part of the city, it matters 
not what line or where, will ultimately land in Canal 
Street. But it needs a person of vast local erudition 
to tell in what part of the city, or in what section of 
the home of the frog and crawfish, he will land if he 
takes a horse car in Canal Street. 

From twelve to two the American ladies monopolize 
the main thoroughfare, coming to it from all portions 
of the city on errands of shopping ; hundreds of 
lovely brunettes may be seen in carriages, in cars, in 
couples with mamma, or accompanied by the tall 
dark Southern youth attired in black broadcloth. 
At three a tide of beauty floods the neighborhood, 
but at evening all is very quiet and it hardly seems 
the main thoroughfare of so large a city. 



900 NEW ORLEANS. 

6. Street Cobbler.— The glimpses of street life m 
New Orleans are always entertaining because un- 
conscious, while full of character. There the negro 
boot-black sits sprawled in a chair, with his own feet 
on the blacking block ; the old bouquet sellers, both 
black and white, are ranged along the walls at some 
convenient corner, with baskets filled with breast- 
knots of violets, and a host of rosebuds and camelias 
and other rich blossoms. The newsboy, vociferous 
as his brother in the North, yells and yells. Here is 
an ancient darkey asleep, with mouth open, in his 
tipped up two-wheeled cart, waiting for a job ; here 
comes the ** solid South" in the shape of an immense 
"aunty" under a red umbrella ; the broad-faced 
women in gay bandanas rest behind their cake 
stands ; then we meet the black stalwart vender of 
tin and iron utensils, who totes in a basket and piled 
on his head and strung on his back, a weight of over 
two hundred and fifty pounds. Here and there we 
see a cobbler on his bench in the street plying his 
awl and singing to himself We stop awhile to watch 
his work, and to admire the skill that can make as 
good as new the decrepit specimens of boots and 
shoes on the pavement at his side. All his implements 
are out here on the walk, and his entire stock in 
trade hangs almost over his head. As we turn away 
we meet a group of negro women who walk erect 
wnth baskets of clothes or enormous bundles balanced 
on their heads, smiling and chattering and unconscious 
of their burdens. All these are familiar figures of a 
street life as varied and picturesque as an artist can 
desire. 



NEW ORLEANS. 



901 



7. The University, Common Street. — On Com- 
mon Street, one of the business thoroughfares of the 
town, is the University of Louisiana, a handsome 
edifice, flanked by two wings, one of which is now 
occupied by the State Library and the other by the 
Law School. It was through the enterprise of seven 
resident physicians that in the fall of 1834, the 
Medical College of Louisiana was organized; and in 
March, 1836, the first degrees in science ever conferred 
within the state were conferred by the professors of 
the unendowed medical college. This remarkable 
epoch in the scientific history of Louisiana was 
succeeded by seven years of unrequited and unaided 
professional labors by the faculty for the advancement 
of medical science. In the twenty-seven years suc- 
ceeding its beginnino-, this institution had augmented 
its class from eleven students to a number which 
elevated it to the third in numerical rank among the 
colleges of the United States. The faculty have 
matriculated 7522 students. The great success of 
this institution was in a large part due to the learning, 
marked capacity, and wide-spread reputation of those 
members of the faculty, who from the foundation of 
the college gave their zealous labors for many con- 
secutive years to its prosperity. 

Encouraged by the success of the Medical College, 
the I>aw Department of the University was organized 
in May, 1847. The course of lectures given by the 
able members of the Law Faculty have embraced 
the civil law, common law and equity, admiralty, 
commercial, international and constitutional law, and 
the jurisprudence of the United States. The large 
number of graduates who have received degrees 



90 2 NEW ORLEANS. 

from this department constitute a considerable pro- 
portion of the most prominent and distinguished 
members of the bar of the State ; many have reached 
high public honor, and have filled with great credit to 
their alma mater some of the highest positions the 
nation can bestow. 

8. St. Philip's street. — The streets of New 
Orleans have the prettiest names of any city in the 
Union ; this one alone of American cities has pre- 
served all the romance of its earlier days in the titles 
of its streets, and with a simple directory one can 
recall the entire history of the French and Spanish 
dominion. Having changed its ownership no less 
than five times, having passed under so many masters, 
having witnessed such vicissitudes of fortune, New 
Orleans has a history full of incident and romance, 
and this it tells in its street nomenclature. After 
historical and poetical sources had furnished their 
quota, the religious tendency of the population was 
evinced by giving religious names to many of the 
streets. There are several hundred saints so honored, 
and scarcely one in the calender has escaped a namesake 
in the Crescent City. In the old French quarter, 
running at right angles to the levee, is a shabby old 
street, named after the holy St. Philip. It is ill- 
paved with undulating sidewalks and open gutters 
green with slime. On each side are rows of houses 
of brick with the painted stucco peeling off; with 
green doors and batten window shutters, with wooden 
galleries or the delicate tracery of wrought-iron work. 
The odd little balconies jut out from the dingy 
wrinkled houses, peering into each other's faces as if 



NEW ORLEANS. 903 

in endless conversation. Under these, queer little 
shops are to be found, apothecaries' and musty stores 
where old furniture, brasses, bronzes and books are 
sold, and birds innumerable. The language heard on 
all sides is French, or the degraded jargon which the 
easy-going African has manufactured out of the 
tongue of Bienville. Nothing could be shabbier than 
the picturesque tumble-down old street, which fascin- 
ates us from the first, but are utterly unable to say 
wherein the charm lies. While the thrifty and neat 
and orderly streets win our approval, such a thriftless, 
battered and stained, and lazy old place as the street 
St. Philip immediately takes our hearts. 

9. St. Louis Cemetery. — The cemeteries, old and 
new are scattered throughout the city. It would be 
difficult to dig a grave of the ordinary depth here in the 
"Louisiana lowlands" without coming to water, and 
consequently burials in sealed tombs above the ground 
are universal. The old French and Spanish ceme- 
teries present long streets of cemented walls, with 
aperatures in which the dead are enclosed. One sees 
long processions of mourning relatives every day 
carrying flowers to the spot where their loved and 
lost are entombed ; or catches a glimpse of some 
black robed figure sitting motionless before a tomb. 
There is a sense of peculiar sorrow at the sight of 
these stone boxes which does not prevade the mind 
when those gone before are resting under the green 
sod. The hot southern sun beats down on these ex- 
posed brick vaults, and onl\' those who have dear 
ones buried both North and South can appreciate the 
peculiar sense of desolation which comes with 




904 NEW ORLEANS. 



crushing force, when standing near the last resting 
place of a loved one in the quiet Southern cemetery 
of St. Louis. 

10. Old City Hall. — Another interesting relic of 
this old French city is the City Hall, standing on 
Chartres Street, in the French quarter. It was built 
in 1795 and for many years afforded ample accommo- 
dation for the city council, city officers, and city 
guard. It is one of the most artistic public buildings 
in the city. Its front occupied one hundred and three 
feet on Chartres Street ; it had a wide flight of granite 
steps leading to a beautiful portico supported by six 
columns. Built after the model of an ancient Greek 
Temple its fine proportions and noble appearance 
were the admiration of all. Now it is fast going to 
ruin, and the stuccoed pillars are peeling off for 
their final plunge into obliv^ion. But it is beautiful 
even in its picturesque decay, and as we stand before 
it we mentally review the romantic history of the city 
in which this building has played so important a part. 

11. lAvf Oak Troes, — Most characteristic and 
beautiful of Southern foliage are the gigantic live 
oaks, moss draped trees, monstrous in girth, towering 
into the sky with a vast spread of branches. Nowhere 
can be seen a nobler growth than these stately trees. 
Truly beautiful they appear, spreading, leafy and 
rough, with filmy draperies of the Spanish moss. 
This graceful plant, unlike most parasites, does not 
kill the tree to which it clings, but seems lightly to 
touch it here and there, hanging in most beautiful 
draperies, gently swaying in every breeze, until the 



NEW ORLEANS. 905 

whole landscape is transformed into a mass of waving 
green. Once familiar with these giants of the South 
with their long streamers of moss waving in colors of 
silver grey against the rich green of the leaves, our 
landscapes at the North seem bare in comparison. 
Although many of our trees are perfect in their 
stately beauty, still the mind reverts with longing to 
the live oaks with silver hangings swaying, dreamily 
in the rich sunlight ; or at evening seeming like vast 
canopies of frost work lighted by the perfect Southern 
moon. 

12. On tlie Lovee, T.oacling- Steaiuers. — The 

steamboat landing is peculiarly characteristic of New 
Orleans. Here all is action ; the very water is covered 
with life. Huge vessels float upon its bosom which 
acknowledge none of the powers of air and wait no 
tide. As far as we can see in either direction ex- 
tends a forest of masts and spars, and black smoke 
stacks, and flag staffs upon ships and steamers. Up 
the river — ships and ships and ships. Down the river 
— steamers and steamers and steamers ! Sharp cut 
American, solid sea-going English, queer Spanish — 
vessels from every European port — flying almost 
every important ensign — h'ing at the levees and dis- 
charging their cargoes into bonded warehouses or 
the drays drawn by patient mules. 

One steamer is weighed down to the guards with 
cotton, all that can be seen of her are her stacks and 
upper works rising out of a mountain of cotton. Im- 
posing structures are these Mississippi steamers ; 
some are three hundred feet long and their tall stacks 
rise eighty feet above the decks. They carry immense 



go6 NEW ORLEANS. 

cargoes, some of the largest being able to take ten 
thousand bales at one trip. The freight depots, the 
reception sheds and the warehouses are crammed 
with jostling, sweating, shouting, black and white 
humanity. There seems life, prosperity, energy 
enough on every hand to suffice for half a dozen 
ports. 

When once seen we cannot forget the levee of New 
Orleans ; the storehouse of the great valley of the 
Mississippi ; the receptacle of the products of a hun- 
dred climes ; the goal of a thousand steamboats and 
of more than a thousand merchant-men ; the exchange, 
the place of purchase, of sale and barter ; the shop, 
the newsroom, the mart of the 
city in the world. 



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